To Rescue a Villain

Chapter 33

The space station was getting farther away.

I could feel the air closing in on me. Were you even supposed to call it air?

Thank goodness I was still wearing my space suit, though it wouldn't do much good when I hit the world's surface. Why was the moon so close to Manica anyway? Wouldn't that create tsunamis or something? I'd never been big on science but it sounded like a logical question.

No matter how much I tried I couldn't get the bracelet off my wrist. It was thick and too tight to be wriggled out of. I hated it. Hated it!

Was I speeding up? It felt like I was.

Yup. Manica was even closer now.

Would it hurt when I hit the ground?

My heart rolled over itself. I didn't want to die. What would happen to Derek? What would happen to Polly? What would happen to me?

If I died here would I die in real life? Was this real life now?

Maybe this was all just a dream and when I landed I would wake up in my bed at home, still a hopeless teenager with no dreams. That would be preferable to this.

It was starting to get warm instead of cold now. I must have reached the atmosphere. Wonder why it wasn't burning me to a crisp. Maybe the atmosphere was different here compared to Earth. I didn't know. I'd never cared enough to look it up.

...You know, maybe my death would be for the best. I was never supposed to come here, after all.

Zora was supposed to marry Dark. She had been alone, afraid, desperate. Derek had been the one to love her, care for her, save her. She'd probably died happy.

Then I had stepped in. I had replaced her and taken away what little joy she might have enjoyed before dying. I had stolen her life.

In a way, I had been the villain.

I had saved Derek but destroyed Zora.

Yes. Maybe I deserved to die.

I slowly opened my eyes, which had been squeezed shut so I couldn't see the fast approaching world, and lost my breath. It was so close now. I could almost feel it.

I didn't want to die. I didn't care what I'd done, I just didn't want to die.

I don't want to die!

Derek!

I don't want to die!

Dark!!!

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Ugh. I must have...fallen asleep. Where was I?

It felt like I was floating. Like I'd landed in a pile of clouds and they were wrapping around me like bubbles from a child's bathtub. It was so cold. So, so very cold.

And...

Everything burned. A searing pain bit at every part of my body, a pain that outdid the burns I'd gotten as a child when I touched the stove. It outdid the pain of childbirth. There was so much and it was so fast and everywhere and it hurt!

I wanted to scream. I wanted to thrash around and try to escape the awfulness that was my current existence but I couldn't even blink without using every ounce of my energy. I thought death was supposed to be warm and numb, not like this.

My brain was barely able to register a small, whirring noise above my head. The glass on my helmet had shattered and I think one of the shards was embedded in my cheek, not that I could tell since the pain wasn't focused on just one area.

The whirring came from behind me and I could see, out of the corner of my eye, a small familiar looking robot. My mind was so loud from the aches and pain that it took me more than one second to remember where I'd seen the metal thing but it finally registered that this was Odette's mini bot, Joe. I'd only remembered his name because it was the same as my brother's.

I wasn't sure what little Joe was doing but I didn't have time to find out because the corners of my eyes were turning an inky black and I fell into a restless sleep where the pain was just as bad and the nightmares were far worse than reality.